Patrick E. Walsh, Appellant v. the Mutual Life Insurance Company, Respondent

Summary

The Court held that a life‑insurance policy payable to a wife if she survives her husband, and otherwise to her children, gives the children only a contingent interest that vests at the moment the wife dies, and only for those children who are alive at that time. A child who predeceased the wife leaves no interest for his estate, and the policy does not become payable to the husband's estate unless all children are dead. The judgment of the General Term was reversed and the Special Term judgment for the plaintiff affirmed.